One year ago....

One year ago, a terrible blizzard came through Oklahoma on Christmas Eve.
 Roads were closed. Our plans were ruined.
 It was the first time in my life that I did not go to my grandparent's house on Christmas Eve.
 It was the first time Brian had not been with his family.
 Luckily, we were at least snowed in at my parents house. 
It would be a Christmas Eve we would never forget.

We had no idea how true that would be.

Little did we know that on that very day halfway across the world, a little boy was being born. 

Our lives changed forever.

Happy Birthday 1st Birthday Tate Engida Plumb! 
It brings tear to my eyes to think about the moment you were born.
I wish I could have been there. 
But I am so thankful that I am with you now.
You have brought more joy and love into our lives than we ever thought was even  possible.

WE LOVE YOU!

A double dose of Santa may be too much.

A couple of weeks ago we went to see Santa Clause. 

Tate did great.  At first he just stared at him, but then he gave us one of his trademark big smiles!

Tonight, we made a last minute visit.
I guess we should have left it on a good note.

Maybe the reindeer scared him?

Hope he's not traumatized!:)

It's a Birthday Party: Dr. Seuss style!

I have a friend that was born on Christmas day and I have heard her horror stories about not getting parties or getting ornaments for presents.  I told Brian a long ago that I never wanted to have a child born on Christmas Day.  When  we got our referral for Tate we were told that he was born on December 24.  Christmas Eve.  Well, I guess that is not Christmas Day!  God makes me laugh.:)

So, in order to try and separate his birthday from Christmas a little bit, we had Tate's first Birthday Party today!

The picture for the invites!  Seriously, could he be any cuter?

 The cupcakes!

 Green Eggs and Ham

 One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

 Cat in the Hat

 Thing 1 and Thing 2

Luckily we got the picture before the cotton candy melted!

 Ready to party!

 The Birthday Boy!

 Aunt Kelli started things off with "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"

Tate and his buds Drew and Hudson.  I have a feeling these three are going to get into a lot of trouble together!:)

 Presents!

 He liked the cake!

 He really liked the cake!

 Ok, he LOVED it!

We can't believe that we almost have a one year old in this house!  What a fun way to celebrate an amazing boy with wonderful family and friends! 

Happy Early Birthday Tate!

We love you!

Excuses...

So, I could bore you with a million excuses of why I have been terrible at blogging: unpacking, cleaning, playing, holidays, and just enjoying Tate.  I assure you that all of them would be true. However, I think the main reason I have stopped blogging is that I feel the pressure of writing about our trip to Ethiopia to pick up Tate.  We spent five amazing, hard, short, long, weeks there.  How do I describe a trip that completely changed our lives forever? There is no way I could give it justice. So I have decided to take the pressure off of myself  and just start blogging again.  I assure you that I will blog about our journey, trip, and experience, but it will be in no order.  I will tell stories, show pictures, and describe our feelings, but there is no time frame. 

Ahhhh.  I feel better already!:)

Meet Tate....a delayed post!:)

Has is really been 7 weeks since we boarded a plane to Ethiopia?  Have we really been a family of three for a little over 6 weeks?  Has it really been almost 2 weeks since we returned home from a 5 week from a trip of a lifetime?  The answer is yes.

And I will say that since we got home 2 weeks ago we have laughed and laughed and laughed and we have played and played and played. 

What we have not done is folded one piece of laundry, gone through souvenirs, and, obviously, blogged.

I want to tell you all how amazing this time has been.  We were so thankful that we were able to spend 5 weeks in Ethiopia.  We truly feel like we were able to fully experience the culture and the time we spent with Tate bonding was something that has been such a gift. More on the trip late but without further delay, I would like to introduce you to Tate Engida Plumb!

Yes, he is as much fun as he looks.

We are really doing it!!!!:)

We are off! First stopp Atlanta then Amsterdam with final stop...ETHIOPIA!!!!! We'll try to update as much as we can! See some of you guys there!!!!

Nursery is ready!

Sheets are washed. Pictures are hung.  Books are stacked.

Nursery is ready.

Ready for a little boy named Tate.

Ethiopia:  T minus 3 days!

Let the packing begin!!!!

We passed our MOWA date today!  What a huge relief!  This mean that we officially leave on the 8th of October!  We meet Tate on the 11th and our court date in on the 12th.  If we pass court on the 12th he is officially ours!!! We then wait for our embassy appointment to get Tate's visa so we can bring him home!!! 

The wait is almost over! 

Now the craziness really begins!

Showered!!!

I seriously can not believe how close we are getting!!! During this adoption process, you wait and wait and wait and wait.... and sometimes it feels like that is what you will always do.  Wait. But these waiting days are coming to an end!  There are some events that have been marked on my calendar and have served as milestones.  Slowly those events have passed and we find ourselves 2 days away from our MOWA date! WHAT?!?

A couple of those "milestones"  happened this weekend and I have been looking forward to them for quite some time. 

The first was a shower hosted by some of our wonderful friends.  OU football, hamburgers, gifts and good friends...what more could you want?

 Note the Tate in the heart!  So cute!

 I LOVED the balloons!  

 "Super Tate!"

 Matching mommy bracelets engraved with our kiddos names!  Thanks Kelli!

 Friends!

 Showing off the cake again!

If that wasn't enough, on Sunday our church threw us a shower.  And did they ever go over the top!  Let me just say that in the 6 years Brian and I have been at Oakcrest, the people there have become like family.  We feel so blessed to be able to serve with such amazing people.   And I love that people already are praying for  and loving Tate!

 Cutest cake ever!  Our sweet friend Kim spent hours making this special cake for us!  She also did our wedding cake over 6 years ago.  And it tasted just as good as it looked!

You may recognize the cake from these prints that are hanging in Tate's nursery!

 There was one person at the shower that actually has met Tate!  Kellie shared her story about meeting and playing with Tate even before we had ever seen his face.  (And few tears were shared at this point!:)) 

Our parents even got gifts of t-shirts with their names on them!

The wonderful hostesses minus Kim.

The only bad thing is that now I think we are going to need a bigger nursery!:)

We feel so thankful that we have so many people in our lives that love and support us!

We are blessed!

2 days until MOWA!

10 days until Ethiopia!

Busy Little Bee's

I know I haven't blogged much in the past couple of weeks, but we have been getting some serious stuff done around here. 

In the past 2 weeks we have painted the nursery, put together a crib, cleaned the garage, had a garage sale, finished the nursery (pics coming soon), put together 4 bookcases, finished our adoption videos, assembled a new entertainment center (one more baby friendly with doors), and done some serious spring-like cleaning ! 

It has been so nice to get somethings off of "the list".

Red walls+ paint with primer+ 4 coats= Blue walls

The skills I acquired through my summer painting job when I was in high school and college have proven very helpful.  It also reminds me how much I hate to paint!

I think he has it covered!

Good job guys!  So what if you took you 4 times to get the hinges on the door the correct way.  We won't tell anyone:)

You would think that getting all of this stuff done would put me at ease.  Now I have consumed myself with preparing for the trip.  I seriously have written and rewritten a list about 27 times of things we need to pack!

I will say that I am ever so thankful for this blogging community right now.  Whether it be by looking at the blogs of those who have traveled ahead of us or talking to those that will be traveling with, it has kept me sane!  I can not WAIT to meet all of you who we are traveling with!  It is going to be such a fun time!  I feel like I already know so many of you as I have stalked your blog over and over throughout our journey!  It is going to be a blast!

We are asking that you continue to pray for our MOWA date on the 30th, court on Oct 12th, a quick embassy appointment following court, and safe travels for all of us picking up our babies!

29 days until Ethiopia people! :)

A change in plans!

There have been a little bit of a change in plans for us involving our stay in Ethiopia!  We are so excited to say that we have decided to stay in Ethiopia until our Embassy date, which is typically 3-6 weeks after the court date!   YAY!  After saying this, if our embassy date is going to be 5-6 weeks after court we will have to come home for work but we are planning on staying the whole time and praying that our embassy date is sooner rather than later!

Although we are very excited about this, it is also extremely stressful!  This is something we have just decided in the past week and it changes our whole thinking on our trip.  What and how much do we pack? I mean, diapers alone could take up a whole suitcase! How are we going to make housing arrangements?  What activities will we do while we are there?  Any suggestions would be appreciated!

However, I did have a sign today.

Don't you see it?!?!  It's Africa in the tomato!  Brian thinks I am crazy!:)

But don't you think it is a sign!:)

 32 days until Ethiopia!!!!!